Men's Edition: Balding at 18

Going bald at any age is difficult. It is, however, easier to accept at a much older age. I started going bald at the young age of 18. I was a freshman in college and excited about this new stage in my life. You can't imagine the horror I was faced with one morning in my dorm room as I was combing my hair to find the center part of my head thinning.

I stared at that area for hours. I couldn't believe my eyes. I began messing with the lights in my room thinking it was creating the illusion of less hair. I even closed the shades thinking that maybe it was the sunlight. All these different attempts to change my reality were not working. I had to accept the truth and that truth is that I was going bald at 18 years old in college - during the four most memorable years of my life.

What made it worse was that my college buddies decided to grow their hair out that same year. Great. Perfect timing! I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to start wearing hats because it would draw too much attention to my head. Besides, I never wore hats so that would be a little awkward.

I decided to just live and forget about my hair thinning and maybe no one would notice, but was I wrong. My friends gave me a tough time which honestly helped me develop a hard shell. I was upset then, but I soon realized that no one is at fault for the inevitable fate of my hair so the jokes and insults had no merit. Some people wouldn’t appreciate any jokes about going bald, but in my case, the jokes helped me to not care.

Going bald is completely out of my control so giving anyone power over my emotions makes no sense. I can try to use products marketed to hair growth to prolong the inevitable but that would take too much time, and I don’t know if the chemicals they use to grow the hair back are harmful. I would rather use that energy to focus on other features that compliment my appearance and I have control over such as my beard, clothing style, fitness and not to mention my kick ass personality.

I'm sure my wife fell in love with at least one of these attributes. But before you work on any of these you have to make sure your self-love and self-respect is in tact.